No Longer a Secret
by kayELRfan
Summary: Season 10. Episode 2. Debra wanted to keep her pregnancy a secret from Marie, but how fast will she find out?
1. Mr Considerate

Disclaimer: I do not own ELR nor do I own any of the characters. 

A/N: I am working on writing the 10th season of Everybody Loves Raymond, this is the second episode. Please R&R!

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Debra is sitting on the couch reading a magazine, it's been two months since she found out she was pregnant. She still couldn't believe it was true but what was even harder for her believe was the fact that Marie hadn't figured it out yet, although she and Frank had been away on vacation for 2 weeks, so her in-laws would have quite a shock when they walked through that door the next afternoon to announce their return. She looks over at the clock and realizes she better get started on dinner.

"Deb!" Ray hollers out from upstairs. "I hope you're not getting up to cook dinner!"

"Why?" she asks.

"Pregnant women are supposed to eat well," he explains. "Not fill their bodies with toxins."

"Ray!" she hollers at him, unable to keep a smile off of her face.

"I told you I wanted you to relax," he says, sounding closer to the stairs.

Debra quickly sits back down on the couch with a guilty look on her face. Ray had been so sweet and caring, completely unlike himself, these past couple months. He had been doing everything for her; he didn't let her lift a finger. She knew it couldn't last though, she just wished he would wait until it was harder for her to work around the house for him to start helping out, otherwise she'd have to rely on Marie!

"But Ray–" she says in protest.

"Don't give me that," he says, coming down the stairs. "I told you I didn't want you working too hard. You already made yourself breakfast this morning before I could get up to make it for you."

"Ray!" she exclaims. "I had cereal for breakfast!"

"I don't care," he says, sitting down beside her. "Why can't you just let me take care of you?"

He gives her a quick kiss and he rests his hand on her belly.

"Well," she says as she puts her hand on top of his and smiles at him. "Alright."

He smiles as he gives her another kiss and gets up to start dinner.

She sits there for a minute, watching him as he gathers the ingredients he will need.

"Ray?" she says.

"Yeah squeaky?" he replies.

"Why is it that all of the sudden you know how to cook?" she asks. "Every other time I've asked you to help me you say you'll screw it up. And then when I force you to help me, you do screw it up."

"I can't say it has far to go!" he laughs.

"Come on Ray," Debra replies. "Why?"

"I don't know, I guess I just didn't want you to ask me," he replies. "You know how lazy I am."

"That's true." Debra replies.

Phew! She bought it! He couldn't have her knowing that as soon as he found out she was pregnant; he had started going over to his mother's house to learn to cook. He thought he would hate it, especially the part about his mother being his teacher, but it turned out to be one of the best parts of his day. His mom was different when she was in the kitchen; it was like he was back in grade school learning how to play the piano. She was nice, helpful, caring, and even funny sometimes. He was glad he could do this to help Debra out right now; he just wished he would have done it when she was pregnant with the rest of the kids.


	2. Ally

Ally comes downstairs to find her mother sitting on the couch folding laundry, the only work Ray would let her lift a finger to do because she could do it sitting down. She desperately wanted to talk to her mom about everything going on, but she didn't know how Debra would react to her questions. When her parents had told her that they were going to have another baby, she was shocked, and a little mad at them. They're lives were great, Ally didn't have to baby-sit the twins anymore so that left her more free time to hang out with her friends and do the things she liked, the house was quite, and her grandparents hadn't been coming over to the house as much anymore. If there was a new baby, all of that would disappear; she didn't want her life to change that much.

Debra turns around to see Ally just standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"How long have you been there?" she asks. "Did you need something?"

Ally goes and sits down on the couch beside Debra. Several times she tries to start a conversation, but can't bring herself to say the words.

"Honey," Debra says, putting her hand on top of Ally's. "Is something wrong?"

"Why are you having another baby?" she asks, finally looking her mother in the eye.

"What?" Debra asks, a little surprised, she thought they had already talked about this, Ally had seemed fine with the whole thing.

"Why did you and dad decide to have another baby now?" Ally asks again. "Aren't you happy with your life? If you wanted more kids, why didn't you have them when we were all younger, why wait so long?"

"Well sweetie," Debra begins. "We didn't exactly plan on this."

"What do you mean?" Ally asks with a questioning look on her face.

"Well, it wasn't like we were trying to have a baby, it just kind of…happened." Debra explains. "I'll admit, I was thinking about it, but I wasn't actually going to tell your dad."

"But didn't you–" Ally begins; feeling a little embarrassed talking to her mother about this. "You know…"

"Yes, we did, but it doesn't always work," Debra explains. "That's why I've always told you to wait, you can think you have everything under control, but the unexpected can still happen."

"Mom," Ally says. "You wouldn't–"

"Wouldn't what?" Debra asks, puzzled.

"You wouldn't get an abortion," Ally finishes, almost in a whisper. "Would you?"

"No," Debra replies. "It's not my job to decide whether or not somebody lives her dies, that's God's job. Abortion is murder, Ally, no matter if you want to believe it or not. It is taking the life of an innocent human being that can't defend itself in any way. I could never do that."

"I'm glad," Ally says, smiling.

Debra smiles back at her as she puts her arms around her daughter, holding her close in an embrace.

"Ally," Debra says as she leans back against the couch. "Are you upset about me having another baby?"

"A little," Ally tells her, looking down at her hands.

"Why?" Debra asks.

"Life was great around here," Ally says, looking up at her mother again. "I didn't have to baby-sit anymore so I had more time for myself, it was quite, most of the time at least, and Grandma and Grandpa didn't come over here as much."

"Ok," Debra says.

"If you have another baby," Ally tells her. "All that will go away. There will be somebody I have to baby-sit again, the baby will cry and stuff, and Grandma and Grandpa will be over here all the time again."

"What do you want me to do about it Ally?" Debra asks.

"I don't know mom," Ally says. "I'm not mad at you, or dad, or the baby. I guess I'm just mad at the circumstances."

"I know how you feel Ally," Debra says. "But believe me, if you don't want to baby-sit, you don't have to. And although I won't be able to change crying, I can talk to Grandma and Grandpa about how much they come over, and maybe I can get them to spend most of their time over here when you are at school."

"Really?" Ally asks, genuinely surprised.

"Sure honey," Debra replies.

"Thanks mom," Ally says, giving her mom a hug. "Who knows, it could be fun to have another little brother or sister."


	3. The Twins

"Hey Ray!" Debra calls. "Come in here for a minute."

"Yup," he answers. "Just a second."

After hearing what Ally had to say on the matter, she was wondering if maybe she and Ray needed to talk to the twins again. They had said they were happy about it, and asked Debra to make sure she had a boy, but could they hiding what they really thought too?

"What?" Ray asks as he comes into the living room from the kitchen.

"Have the twins said anything to you?" Debra asks. "About the baby, I mean."

"No," he replies. "Why?"

"Well," Debra answers. "I was just talking to Ally and there were some things she was concerned about."

"But she said she was fine with it," Ray tells her.

"I know," she replies. "That's why I'm wondering if we need to talk to the twins. Maybe they didn't tell us everything either."

Just then, the boys come running downstairs. Ray puts out his hands to stop them.

"Hey," he says. "Can I talk to you guys for a second?"

"Sure dad," Michael answers for them.

Ray leads them into the kitchen and they all sit down around the table.

"Your mom and I were wondering how you felt about the baby," Ray tells them. "We know you said it was cool when we talked to you before, but we wanted to make sure that was still the same."

"Is mom still going to try and have a boy?" Michael asks.

"She'll do her best," Ray tells them with a smile on her face. "No guarantees though."

The boys look at each other and then back at Ray without saying anything.

"Come on guys," Ray says. "You can tell me the truth about this, are you still happy about your mom having a baby?"

"Can we baby-sit?" Geoffrey asks.

"What?" Ray asks with a look of astonishment on his face.

"Can we baby-sit?" Geoffrey repeats.

"Well sure, I mean, maybe in a year or two," he replies. "Not right away."

"But when he's a little older, we can baby-sit?" Michael asks.

"Hey," Ray says. "You guys do know that it might be a girl, don't you?"

"Sure," Geoffrey replies. "We're just hoping for a boy, that's all."

"Yeah," Michael adds.

"Ok, well to answer your question, yes," Ray tells them, happy that they seem to be accepting all this. "You can baby-sit later on."

"Awesome," Michael says. "Then we're cool with it."

"Ok great," Ray says with a smile on his face. "Now go give your mom a kiss and wash up for dinner."

"Sure dad," the boys say before running into the living room and jumping on to the couch beside Debra.

"Hey you guys," Debra says. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Michael tells her.

"Yeah," Geoffrey says. "Nothing."

They both give her a kiss and then get up off the couch, preparing to race each other upstairs to the bathroom.

"Wait a minute guys," Debra says as the twins turn around to face her. "What was that for?"

"Dad said we had to," Geoffrey tells her.

Debra laughs as they run upstairs, her kids could be so funny sometimes!


	4. Marie's Discovery

"Ray!" Debra hollers upstairs. "Get your ass down here! Your parents are supposed to be home in 10 minutes, and you know this is the first place they'll stop after been gone for two weeks!"

Debra was getting a little nervous, wondering if she made the right choice to avoid telling Marie about being pregnant. There was no way to hide it now; it was quite obvious, if not to everybody, at least to her family and close friends, that she was a little more than three months pregnant. Well, the decision had already been made, she'd find out how Marie would react in a matter of minutes.

"Does this shirt look ok?" Ray asks, finally coming downstairs.

"Ray," Debra replies. "You don't care how you look any other time, why do you care now?"

"Mom and dad have been gone for two weeks," he explains. "I want to look nice."

Debra rolls her eyes at him as she starts to straighten up the living room.

"Deb!" Ray yells.

"What?" she asks, stopping for a minute to look up at him.

"I told you to relax," he says. "I'll take care of this."

"Ray–" Debra begins.

"Deb!" Ray replies, putting his arms around her; stopping her from fighting him on the issue.

"Fine," Debra says as he lets go of her, throwing her hands up in the air in surrender. "Have a blast!"

She grabs a magazine and sits down on the couch to relax as Ray begins tidying up the twins' toys and making sure the place looked nice.

"This," she says, putting her feet up on the coffee table. "I could get used to!"

A couple minutes later, Frank and Marie walk through the front door.

"We're home!" Marie exclaims in her usual overly dramatic way.

Ray stops straightening up and Debra puts down her magazine as she stands up to greet them.

"Hey!" Ray and Debra say together.

As everybody hugs, it is quite obvious Marie is looking closely at Debra.

"You know dear," she begins. "The way that shirt fits you, it makes you look like you're pregnant."

"Oh?" Debra says.

"Well, if you just take the sides in a bit like this–" she stops short as she pulls Debra's shirt closer around her and her growing belly becomes even more noticeable.

"Holy crap!" Frank exclaims as he looks at his daughter-in-law.

"Debra you're–" Marie begins. "You're–"

"Pregnant ma," Ray finishes for her. "Debra's pregnant."


	5. Another Grandbaby

"Pregnant!" Marie exclaims.

"Yes!" Debra says with a huge smile on her face.

"But," Marie stammers. "You must have known about this before we went away, why didn't you tell us?"

"Yeah!" Frank adds. "Why?"

Everybody turns to look at Frank.

"What?" he asks innocently.

"Marie," Debra says as she puts her hand on Marie's arm. "We wanted to surprise you."

"Well," Marie says as she pulls away from Debra.

"Really," Debra tells her. "We wanted to see how you would react if you just found out like this."

Marie just stands there, her arms crossed in front of her.

"Ma," Ray adds. "Have you forgotten that this means you'll have another grandchild?"

A smile slowly spreads across Marie's face as what her son said reaches her ears. She had been so caught up in the fact that Debra had hidden this from her she forgot what the end result would be.

"Another grandchild!" she exclaims.

Ray and Debra look at each other and smile.

"Come here!" Marie says, giving Debra a big hug. "When are you due?"

"In May," Debra tells her.

"Oh this is so exciting!" Marie tells her, her smile becoming even bigger, if that was possible.

"Congratulations sweetheart." Frank says, giving Debra a hug.

"Thanks Frank," Debra says, still smiling.

"Wait a go Raymo!" Frank says to Ray, shaking his hand. "Taking care of business, eh son?"

"Yeah, sure dad," he replies.

"Debra!" Marie exclaims. "You should be resting! You sit down right now and I'll make you something to eat."

"It's OK Marie," Debra tells her. "You must be tired after that long trip; you should go home and rest."

"I won't be able to rest one bit if I don't know you're taken care of over here," Marie firmly tells her. "Now no more arguments, you sit down and relax right now."

"Alright! You win," Debra says, throwing up her hands in mock surrender before sitting down on the couch.

"Now," Marie begins. "What would you like to eat?"

"Whatever you want to make," Debra tells her. Maybe, if she didn't fight it, she could actually enjoy being taken care of this time around.

"Ok dear," Marie says before giving Debra a kiss on the forehead and going into the kitchen.

"Make that order for two!" Frank hollers out as he takes a seat in his usual chair.

"Ha!" Marie hollers back at him.

"Hold on Frank," Debra says to him, and then to Marie, "Please Marie, it's been so long since we all sat down and had a meal together."

Marie comes back into the living room.

"Did Frank tell you to say that?" she asks suspiciously.

"No!" Debra insists.

"Alright then," Marie says; smiling. "One home cooked meal for four, or should I say five, coming right up!"


	6. Like Father, Like Son

Marie is still in the kitchen cooking while Frank, Ray, and Debra are sitting in the living room watching television.

"I tell ya," Frank says while unzipping his pants. "This is the life!"

"Yup!" Ray agrees, doing the same.

"Ray," Debra says, laughing at how much like his father Ray is becoming.

"What?" he asks her, somewhat less than innocently.

"You're turning into your father!" she exclaims, laughing.

"Hey," Ray says. "What did I ever say to you that I deserve to be insulted like that?"

Debra rolls her eyes at him before watching the television again.

"Hey," Frank says as Robert walks in the door. "Nothing to be ashamed of, it's your house, you gotta be comfortable!"

"Hey everybody," he greets them.

"Hey Robert," Debra says, smiling up at him.

"Hey man," Ray says without turning away from the television.

"What's all this about being comfortable?" he asks as he takes a seat in the rocking chair.

"May I present," Ray says, pointing at Frank. "Exhibit A."

"Why don't you go over to your house and be comfortable there?" Robert asks after looking at Frank.

"Where your mother is," Frank tells his son. "I am."

Ray, Debra, and Robert look over at Frank with a shocked look on their face.

"What?" he asks them.

"You're always trying to get away from ma," Robert says.

"No, you don't understand," Frank begins to explain. "She's cooking. As long as she's cooking I will follow her anywhere."

Everybody rolls their eyes as they go back to watching the television.


	7. Be a Man

Ray, Debra, and Robert are sitting on the couch. Frank is sitting in the recliner. Marie is sitting in the rocking chair.

"Now that," Ray says. "Was good."

"Yeah, yeah," Debra says, looking around at all the guys with their pants open. "Why don't you go marvel at the wonder of your mommy's cooking across the street so we don't have to watch."

"What?" Ray asks looking at her.

"Come on, be a man about it," Frank adds.

"Yeah," Ray repeats. "Be a man about it!"

"Mhm," Debra mumbles.

"Those pants have to be awfully tight and uncomfortable," he says looking down at her belly. "Loosen up!"

He reaches over to undo Debra's pants but she quickly swats his hands away.

"Nice try," she tells him, although she is unable to hide her smile.

"Hey," he tells her. "I was just trying to help you out, if you don't want it, well then fine."

Debra raises her eyebrows at him before getting up off the couch.

"Where are you going dear?" Marie asks.

"I was just going to get a glass of water," she tells Marie.

"Sit, sit," Marie tells her. "I'll get it for you."

"No really Marie," Debra says starting to walk toward the kitchen. "I can get it myself."

"Don't argue with me Debra," Marie says as she stands up, blocking Debra's path into the kitchen.

"Fine," she says, going back to sit on the couch. "Fine."

As Marie goes into the kitchen to get Debra's water, Debra leans up against Ray and he puts his arm around her.

"This is nice," she says, looking up at him. "We haven't been able to spend time together like this in a while."

"Yup," Ray replies.

"Even if it is with your family," Debra adds as she looks around.

"Yup," Ray says again.

"Ray," she says as she looks up at him again. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yup," he says, yet again.

"Ray!" Debra says, louder this time.

"What?" he says as he looks over at her. "I'm listening, quality time with my family."

Debra rolls her eyes at him.

"Yeah," she tells him. "You're listening."


	8. The Lecture

Everybody is still sitting in the living room; Debra has fallen asleep on Ray's shoulder.

"Raymond," Marie begins. "I hope you're being a little more helpful around here than you have been in the past."

"I am ma," he tells her.

"Are you telling me the truth?" she asks.

"Yes," he tells her. "I promise.

"I'm going to be keeping an eye on you," she tells him, completely serious. "I don't want Debra doing too much work."

"Why are you suddenly so concerned, ma?" he asks her, suspicion in his voice.

"Raymond," Marie tells him. "Debra is not in her twenties anymore, she's in her forties."

"Yeah," he says. "I know."

"It may have been OK to let her do most of the work around the house before," she tells him. "But she needs to relax more now. She will get tired more easily and the more stress she has to deal with the more stress the baby has to deal with."

"What are you saying ma?" Ray asks, getting a little worried.

"Raymond you should know that there are more risks being pregnant in your forties," she says. "I just want to make sure Debra is taken care of."

"I know ma," Ray says. "Thanks."

Debra smiled to herself. Marie made it sound like if she dusted something she would be in grave danger. Oh well, at least this meant she didn't' have to do as much around the house, at least for the time being.

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The End

A/N: Stay tuned - episode 3 coming soon!


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